Program Purpose
Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) provide
micro-loans to businesses who often do not qualify for bank
loans, as well as one-on-one counseling and business
development assistance to facilitate credit-readiness.

For a list of Small Business Lending Contacts for ESD’s
current CDFI grantees is
here, which includes
this year’s awardees and previous awardees still under
contract.

Program Highlights
Every year CDFIs help thousands of Minority and Women-Owned
Business Enterprises (MWBEs) and most recently small
businesses survive and flourish in New York State.
Since 1998, Empire State Development (ESD) has awarded over
$17 million in grants to federally-certified CDFIs to assist
in their efforts to develop MWBEs and small businesses.
This year ESD awarded $2.99 million in grants to 28 CDFI’s
across New York State. These grant funds were used
expressly to strengthen the lending and technical assistance
services.

Eligibility
The organizations provide lending and technical assistance
services to small businesses and MWBEs to help these
businesses grow, such as:

Assistance with completion of loan applications

Business Plan development

Mentorship and peer group programs

Credit Union services (where available)

Application Process
ESD issues a Request For Proposal (RFP) and considers a
number of factors, including:

Applicant must be certified by the United States
Department of Treasury as a CDFI

Applicant must have as a primary focus of its activities
the provision of financial services for
small
businesses, including: